From a poll published yesterday by WorldPublicOpinion.org:
Not that surprising in general: Everybody knows Asians and Americans like capitalism best. Although the Africans are up there too!
The huge gap between France on the one side and Germany and Italy on the other surprised me. And what’s up with Turkey?
The general global trend in capitalism’s approval rating between 2002-2007 is down, the poll also found. Which is interesting, given that the those years witnessed possibly the greatest global economic growth spurt ever.
In another question from the poll, people were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement: “The free enterprise system and free market economy work best in society’s interest when accompanied by strong government regulations.” The Chinese did, big time. The anti-free-market Turks, strangely, were the least likely to agree with it. They’re just feeling disagreeable these days, I guess. Either that or the Turkish translations of the questions were all wrong.